SNOW WHITE OPERATION

Some time during the 1970s, the Church of Scientology
decided that they’d had enough. Apparently, the Church of Scientology managed
to perform the largest infiltration of the United States government in history.
Ever. 5,000 of Scientology’s crack commandos wiretapped and burglarized various
agencies. They stole hundreds of documents, mainly from the IRS. No critic was
spared, and in the end, 136 organizations, agencies and foreign embassies were
infiltrated.

was the Church of Scientology's name for a conspiracy
during the 1970s to purge unfavorable records about Scientology and its
founder L. Ron Hubbard. This project included a series of infiltrations
and thefts from 136 government agencies, foreign embassies and consulates, as
well as private organizations critical of Scientology, carried out by Church
members, in more than 30 countries; the single largest infiltration of the
United States government in history with up to 5,000 covert agents.

This was also the operation that exposed 'Operation
Freakout', because this was the case that initiated the US government
investigation of the Church.

Under this program, Scientology operatives
committed infiltration, wiretapping, and theft of documents in
government offices, most notably those of the U.S. Internal Revenue
Service. Eleven highly-placed Church executives, including Mary Sue
Hubbard (wife of founder L. Ron Hubbard and second-in-command of
the organization), pleaded guilty or were convicted in federal court of
obstructing justice, burglary of government offices, and theft of documents and
government property.

As early as 1960, L. Ron Hubbard had proposed that
Scientologists should infiltrate government departments by taking secretarial,
bodyguard or other jobs. In the early 1970s, the Church of Scientology was
increasingly scrutinized by US federal agencies, having already been raided by
the Food and Drug Administration in 1963. The Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) claimed it owed millions of dollars in taxes and
the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sent agents into the
organization. The Church's response involved a publicity campaign, extensive
litigation against the IRS and a program of infiltration of agency offices.

The specific branch of Scientology responsible for Operation
Snow White was the Guardian's Office. Created in 1966 by L. Ron
Hubbardhimself, the Guardian's Office's purpose was to protect the interests of
Scientology.

At the time of Operation Snow White, the Guardian's Office
had worldwide headquarters (Guardian’s Office WW) located at Saint Hill
Manor in England. Headquarters in the United States (Guardian’s Office US)
were in Los Angeles, California. A smaller office also existed
in Washington, D.C. (Guardian’s Office DC) and other cities
throughout the United States. Each of the Guardian Offices had five bureaus
including the Information Bureau which oversaw the infiltration of the
government. L. Ron Hubbard oversaw the Guardian's Office, though it was Mary
Sue Hubbard, his wife, who held the title Commodore Staff Guardian.

Several years later, in 1973, the Guardian's Office began a
massive infiltration of governments around the world, though the primary target
of the operation was the United States. Worried about Scientology’s long term
reputation, the Guardian’s Office decided to infiltrate Interpol in
order to obtain documents relating to Scientology, as well as those connecting
L. Ron Hubbard to criminal activity. This duty was handed by Jane Kember to
Henning Heldt and his staff.

Around this time L. Ron Hubbard himself wrote Guardian
Order 732, which called for the removal and correction of “erroneous”
Scientology files. It is here that Operation Snow White has its origins. Though
the order called for this to be achieved by legal means, this would quickly
change.

Hubbard himself would later be named by federal prosecutors
as an "unindicted co-conspirator" for his part in the operation.
Though extensive records of his involvement exist, many Scientologists claim
his directives were misinterpreted by his followers.

Operation Snow White would be further refined by Guardian
Order 1361. Addressed from Jane Kember to Heldt, Duke Snider, and Richard
Weigand, GO 1361 called for, amongst other things, an infiltration of
the Los Angeles and London offices of the IRS, and
theDepartment of Justice.

While the order was specific to the IRS, the Guardian’s
Office was soon recruiting their own field agents to infiltrate other
governmental offices, including the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA), the U.S. Coast Guard intelligence service,
and the National Institute of Mental Health, among others, as well as
the American Medical Association. The program called for rewards to be
given for successful missions carried out by Scientologists.

Other planned elements of the operation included petitioning
governments and the United Nations to charge government critics of
Scientology with genocide, on the theory that official criticism of the
group constituted

"deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of
life calculated to bring about its physical destruction".

One of the sentencing memoranda in the case also noted that,
contrary to what the defendants claimed, the programs planned by
the Guardian's Office were not restricted to trying to remove "false
reports" but included plans to plant false information—for instance,
planting false records about "a cat with
a pedigree name" into US security agency computers so that later
"the creature holds a press conference and photographic story results."
The purpose of Operation Cat was "to hold up the American
security to ridicule, as outlined in the GO by LRH."

The start of 1974 saw a Michael Meisner appointed Assistant
Guardian for Information in the District of Columbia (AG I DC). Meisner’s responsibilities
included the implementation of all Information Bureau orders, programs, and
projects within the DC area. Meisner’s supervisor at this time was Duke Snider,
the Assistant Guardian for DC, or AG DC. This was the highest position in
Washington’s GO office.

In July 1974 Meisner was ordered by Duke Snider to implement
the previously written plan to obtain Interpol documents, which were then
located in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Meisner had more to do
than just this, though, as by August he was also taking directions from a Cindy
Raymond, the GO's Collections Officer for the US, who ordered Meisner to assist
her in finding a loyal Scientologist agent to gain employment at the IRS
headquarters in Washington DC. This employee was to steal all documents dealing
with Scientology, especially those involving current litigation by Scientology
against the government. Meisner discussed this with Raymond for a period of a
month before interviewing various Scientologists with no luck. A month after the
order had been given, Raymond informed Meisner that she had selected Gerald
Bennett Wolfe.

Implementation

The GO's actual infiltration of the government likely began
when Gerald Wolfe and Michael Meisner were able to gain employment at the IRS
as clerk-typists. Under direction of the Guardian Office, Wolfe monitored files
on tax-exempt organizations and, when requested, illegally made copies for
Scientology. Meisner supervised both Wolfe and the Information Bureau section
in DC, and reported to the GO's Deputy Guardian for Information in the US.

In November 1974, Operation Snow White took an unexpected
turn for the GO when they received word that the IRS would be conducting a
meeting on Scientology’s tax-exempt status. In response, the church sent a spy
to bug the room. On the morning of November 1, the day before the meeting, a GO
agent, Hermann, broke into the conference room and plugged the device into an
electrical outlet. This device, in turn, then transmitted a signal on
an FM frequency, which was picked up and recorded by Scientologists
sitting in a car in the parking lot of the Smithsonian, which faced the
office. After the meeting Hermann removed the device, and the taped recording
of the meeting was sent to LA.

By December, Wolfe, Herman, and Meisner had sent a shipment
of stolen documents 20 inches thick to Duke Snider. Snider, in turn, sent
notification to Mo Budlong in LA. By the end of December, Wolfe was stealing
documents from the IRS's Chief Counsel's office. Just days after
Christmas, Wolfe broke into the office of Barbara Bird, an attorney in the
IRS's Refund Litigation Service. Bird had been present at the November 1st
meeting. Instead of stealing files, Wolfe took them to a copier and made
photocopies using government paper.

Later Wolfe met Meisner at a restaurant, where he reported
on his most recent theft. Meisner took the documents and underlined selections
that he believed his superiors would find interesting or relevant and wrote a
summary of the important points. This was then routed through the Assistant
Guardian for DC and on to the Deputy Guardian for the US, the Deputy Guardian
for Information in the US, the Branch I Director of the Information Bureau, and
the Collections Officer, all of which were in LA. A copy was also sent to Mary
Sue Hubbard. This was typically standard procedure for Meisner.

In early 1975 Operation Snow White expanded again as Sharon
Thomas obtained employment in the U.S. Coast Guard Intelligence
Agency and Nancy Douglass began work at the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA). Douglass stole documents and made photocopies of
others. These were transmitted to Hermann.

By Spring, attention had been called back to the IRS case as
Mary Sue Hubbard had instructed Kember and Heldt to “use any method at our
disposal to win the battle and gain our non-profit (tax) status." Heldt
wrote back telling that her request had been sent to the Information Bureau,
who had been ordered to complete the collection of documents from the IRS and
the Department of Justice's tax files within three months.

In April, Meisner procured a directory of the Department of
Justice and located the offices that would have files pertaining to Scientology
litigation. When he found what he wanted he sent in Wolfe, who broke into the
offices of two attorneys on three successive Saturdays. Wolfe copied twelve
files and met up with Meisner, as before, at a restaurant. These files were
especially useful to Scientology, as it detailed the government’s strategy in
various court cases.

In May, Willardson directed Meisner to implement
"Project Horn", which called for Meisner to "provide a cover for
PR and legal for the way they obtained IRS docs". The idea would be for
the GO's Public Relations Bureau to view the documents without worrying about
being connected to the theft. Willardson’s idea called for Meisner to steal
documents dealing with organizations other than Scientology. Willardson also
called for the theft of IRS stationery, in order to forge letters from a
(fictional) disgruntled IRS employee. The files on various organizations
(including Scientology, of course) would then be sent out attached to the fake
letter. The idea was that it would appear that an upset IRS agent had himself
sent the files to numerous organizations. There would be nothing to tie it to
Scientology. Wolfe stole both the stationery and, without permission, files on
the Unification Church and Bob Jones University.

During the Summer and Fall months of 1975 the GO launched an
additional plan. In July, Meisner was told by Cindy Raymond that the Church of
Scientology had initiated a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit
against the IRS. Meisner was directed to add the office of Charles Zuravin to
his list of offices to monitor. Zuravin was representing the government in the
case. Meisner immediately passed this duty on to Wolfe, who broke into
Zuravin's office multiple times between July and November. Wolfe revealed to
his superiors that Zuravin was preparing an index of Scientology files relevant
to the FOIA case. IRS offices from all over the country were sending files to
Zuravin. This index file, required by the courts in all FOIA cases, is a total
list of the documents requested, and reasons for their exemption from the
public, if any.

By October, Zuravin had finished the index, numbering each
document in order to simplify location, and had provided a copy to Scientology
attorneys. These attorneys, in turn, gave the index to Raymond, who passed it
along to Meisner, who passed it to Wolfe. Wolfe then entered Zuravin's office
and then began copying the documents listed on the index. Zuravin had
essentially done the GO's job for them

On December 5, 1975 Jane Kember issued Guardian Program
Order 158, which intended to give L. Ron Hubbard early warning of impending
legal action. The plan called for the infiltration of the government agencies
that had either the power to issue, or the knowledge of, impending subpoenas.
Specific agencies include the US Attorney’s Office in DC and LA, the IRS Office
of International Operations, the DEA, and the Coast Guard and Immigration
and Naturalization. After reviewing the letter, Meisner concluded it would be a
better idea to infiltrate the Department of Justice than the US Attorney's
Office.

In January 1976 Hermann, the Southeast US Secretary for the
Information Bureau, informed Meisner that Heldt and Weigand approved a plan to
send Alverzo to Washington. Alverzo arrived on the 17th, and on the 18th he
picked the locks on the doors belonging to the office of Lewis Hubbard (no
relation to L. Ron Hubbard) and the file room housing Zuravin's files. Wolfe
stood guard at the end of the hallway while Alverzo worked on Hubbard's door. A
few doors down Meisner worked on Zuravin's door. After an hour and a half with
no success, Meisner was getting upset. In frustration, Meisner hit the top of
Zuravin's door, which popped right open. The three Scientologists entered the
office and took the remaining Scientology related documents. They then traveled
to another floor where they made photocopies. Wolfe continued to make copies
while Alverzo and Meisner tried again to open Hubbard's office. The trio then
worked well into the night photocopying files from Hubbard’s office. When they
left, sometime around 2 AM, they left with a foot tall stack of documents. Less
than a month later Richard Weigand wrote to Jane Kember, telling her that the
IRS documents that had been ordered to be obtained in Guardian Order 1361,
over two years earlier, had been obtained.

Gerald Wolfe, along with Meisner, were later able to break
into a room and make false IRS identification cards, which allowed them access
to the federal courthouse in Washington. Wolfe and Meisner then used these
cards to gain access to restricted areas and steal more documents.

While Wolfe and Meisner continued their work at the IRS,
Mary Sue Hubbard, along with other Guardian Office members, were coming up with
further plans. Guardian Program Order 302, written by Cindy Raymond and
approved by Hubbard, amongst others, directed the infiltration of all
government agencies that had withheld files from Scientology's various FOIA
requests.

On the night of April 14, Meisner and Wolfe were on the
tenth floor of the IRS building housing the Office of International
Operations. Trying to enter an office, the pair found it locked. A passing
cleaning lady noted Meisner and Wolfe's suspicious behavior, and notified a
security guard. The guard confronted the pair and was presented with Wolfe's
genuine IRS card and Meisner's fabricated one. Satisfied, the guard had the
cleaning lady open the door. Inside, the pair grabbed a hefty load of files.
Unable to find a photocopier, the pair then took the files to the main IRS
building, where the pair again used their identification to gain access. After
copying the files they returned them to Crate's office. The entire process took
some four hours.

In May, Wolfe broke into the United States Courthouse and
stole keys to the office of Assistant United States Attorney Nathan Dodell.
Wolfe then took these keys to have them duplicated, and returned them
unnoticed. Almost three weeks later Wolfe and Meisner broke into Dodell's
office, stealing documents and, as usual, forwarding them to Guardian
headquarters in Los Angeles. The GO's interest in Nathan Dodell stemmed from a
Scientology FOIA case. In April, Judge George L Hart asked Dodell whether the
US had considered taking a deposition of L. Ron Hubbard. Dodell responded that
it was an "interesting thought". Furthermore, he promised to discuss
it with the Department of Justice.

In May, Meisner and Wolfe entered the US Courthouse for the
District of Columbia around four in the afternoon. They went to the third
floor, which was the home of both the US Attorney's Office and the Bar
Association Library. They planned to locate Nathan Dodell's office, which
was in the back of the Civil Division area, near an elevator. They
then searched for the building’s photocopiers. After mapping out these
locations, they left. Later, Wolfe and Meisner made a copy of Dodell's keys.

On May 21, Meisner and Wolfe entered the Courthouse, signing
in to do research in the library and were issued an elevator key. After riding
the elevator to the floor of the library, the pair entered the library and
removed several books from shelves and sat at a table. After a few minutes they
exited through a backdoor and emerged in a hallway. In this hallway was
Dodell's office, which they entered using their keys. The duo stole a number of
documents related to Scientology and walked through the hallway to the two copy
machines they had previously located. The pair photocopied some six inches of
documents before returning the originals to Dodell's office.

One week later Wolfe and Meisner again met outside the IRS
building. The duo then walked to the US Courthouse, and signed in under fake
names. They repeated their actions from the previous week, copying another foot
of documents from the District of Columbia Police Department as well as
the Food and Drug Administration. Returning to Dodell's office through the
library, they were stopped by the night librarian, who asked if they had signed
in. While they had signed in at the front desk, they had failed to do the same
at the front desk of the library. When they announced that they had not,
Johnson, the night librarian, told the pair not to come back unless they
had specific authorization from the day librarian. The pair promptly left.
Three days later Johnson notified the US Attorney's Office that two individuals
had been seen using the photocopying machines of the Attorney's Office. Johnson
and the night guard were told to immediately contact the FBI if the individuals
returned.

Less than two weeks later Hermann phoned Meisner, and
ordered him to return to Dodell's office and steal his personal files. The goal
was to formulate a plan that would result in Dodell being removed from his
position as an Assistant US Attorney for the District of Columbia.

Meisner and Wolfe entered the United States Courthouse on
June 11 around 7 in the evening. They signed in as they did before, and headed
to the library. Johnson, the night librarian, recognized the pair and
immediately stopped them. Meisner was prepared for this, and showed the man a
letter from the head librarian. Wolfe and Meisner continued to the back of the
library where they exited into the hallway. Outside Dodell’s office the two saw
that cleaning ladies were still at work.

While Meisner and Wolfe waited for the cleaning crew to
vacate the office, Johnson called the FBI, which sent two agents over
immediately. The two agents confronted the Scientologists and demanded to see
their identification. Wolfe used his real identification. Meisner presented his
fake card, and told the agents that he had recently resigned from the IRS.
Meisner told Hansen that the pair was in the library to do legal research, and
that they had used the photocopiers to copy books and cases. Neither mentioned
Scientology. After roughly twenty minutes of questioning, the FBI agents
allowed them to leave. Meisner then phoned Hermann to inform him of the news
and was told to immediately fly to LA.

Aftermath and trial

Meisner and Wolfe were given cover stories by the Guardian's
Office. On the last day of June, Gerald Wolfe was arrested. Wolfe was charged
with “the use and possession of a forged official pass of the United
States." The day after Wolfe’s arrest, Mary Sue Hubbard wrote a letter to
Weigand ordering him to keep her abreast of the situation. Hubbard also
conversed with Mo Budlong, and Richard Weigand about Wolfe’s arrest, cover
story, and subsequent plan to destroy evidence linking Wolfe and Meisner to
Scientology.

At the end of July a judge decided that the case against
Wolfe warranted an investigation by a Grand Jury. A week later the judge issued
an arrest warrant for Meisner, who, at the time, was being hidden in LA. The
FBI was able to connect him to Scientology. By January 1977 it was becoming
increasingly likely that Scientology would be unable to escape Operation Snow
White without serious penalty. Though Meisner was still in hiding, he was
growing increasingly anxious about the situation. By April, Meisner wanted to
surrender to the authorities. Meisner was quickly put under the control of
several guards.

On May 13, Gerald Wolfe entered a guilty plea. Later in the
month, Meisner escaped his captors, only to be convinced to rejoin the GO the
following day.

From 1964 to 1995, the Founding Church of Scientology
in Washington, D.C.. The building was raided by the FBI in July
1977.

In June, Wolfe, after being sentenced to probation and
community service, testified before the Grand Jury. Instead of the truth, Wolfe
told the latest incarnation of his cover story. Several days later Meisner
would again escape his captors, though this time he would contact the FBI.
Meisner was eventually taken to Washington, where he agreed to plead guilty to
a five-year conspiracy felony and cooperate with the Grand Jury.

On July 8 the FBI raided Church of Scientology
locations in Los Angeles, Hollywood and Washington, DC. The Los Angeles
raid involved 156 FBI agents: the most that had ever been used in a single
raid. It lasted 21 hours and filled a sixteen ton truck with documents and
other items.

The raids not only turned up documentation of the group's
illegal activities against the United States government, but also illegal
activities carried out against other perceived enemies of Scientology. These included
"Operation Freakout", a conspiracy to frame author Paulette
Cooper on false bomb-threat charges, and conspiracies to frame Gabe
Cazares, mayor ofClearwater, Florida, on false hit-and-run charges.

The papers also revealed that Sir John Foster (author of
the official UK Government inquiry into Scientology) and Lord
Balniel (who had requested the report) were targets, along with
the National Association for Mental Health (NAMH) and World
Federation for Mental Health.

Comparing the FBI to the Gestapo, the Church declared that
all the files seized from the Church were taken illegally, though the FBI
produced a 40-plus page affidavit detailing 160 specific items they were
looking for.

By July 20, some 13 days after the raid, a Washington judge
ruled that the documents should be returned, at least temporarily, to the
Church, and that none of the documents could be shared with branches of the
government, unless that specific branch was investigating Scientology.
Scientology's lawyers had successfully argued that in order to prepare for an
August 8 hearing on the legality of the raid, they must be able to see the
documents.

By July 27 a judge in Washington had ruled the warrant
authorizing the raid was too broad, and as such, violated the Church's 4th Amendment
rights.

In August this ruling would be overturned, with Scientology
promising to take the case to the Supreme Court, which would, early in the
next year, refuse to hear the case.

Over the course of the investigation the Church of
Scientology would attempt to have a judge removed, and would subpoena almost
150 federal agents in what appeared to be a large stalling scheme. The Church
would also offer several shifting explanations for their actions.

Ultimately, these tactics failed and the defendants agreed
to a plea deal.

The Scientologists would be found guilty and their attorneys
would be allowed to argue for the suppression of the government’s evidence. 7
of the 11 members of the Guardian’s Office pled guilty to just a single count
of conspiracy to obstruct justice. One more pled guilty to a similar charge and
a ninth pled guilty to a misdemeanor. The remaining two Scientologists were in
England, awaiting extradition.

The Royal Courts of Justice, London, where Kember
and Budlong's plea for political asylum was denied.

On December 6, 1979, some five years after Operation Snow
White began, it officially came to an end. Five of the Scientologists were
sentenced to four years in jail, with four of the convicted being taken
immediately. Mary Sue Hubbard, wife of L. Ron Hubbard, was sentenced to five
years. Each of the six faced a fine of $10,000. The next day the four remaining
Scientologists were sentenced. Three of the four faced a fine of $10,000 and
five years in jail. The fourth was fined $1,000 and sent to jail for six
months. Upon release Mary Sue Hubbard was given five years of probation and
community service. All of the Scientologists immediately began to appeal. Their
appeal was rejected.

In November 1980, the two remaining Scientologists, Jane
Kember and Mo Budlong, were finally convicted on nine counts of aiding and
abetting burglary in connection with break-ins at government offices, and were
sentenced to six years.

Kember and Budlong had claimed political asylum in
the UK, arguing that they should not beextradited to
the USA because the burglaries had political objectives. Their
application for asylum was denied by the British High Court;
Mr Justice Griffiths said:

I am unable to accept that organising burglaries either for
the purpose of identifying persons in Government offices hostile to the
Scientologists, or for the purpose of gaining an advantage in litigation, or
even for the wider purpose of refuting false allegations thus enabling a better
image of the Church of Scientology to be projected to the public, comes
anywhere near being an offence of a political character within the meaning of
the Extradition Act.

The Applicants did not order these burglaries to take place
in order to challenge the political control or Government of the United States;
they did so to further the interests of the Church of Scientology and its
members, and in particular the interest of Ron L. Hubbard, the founder of
Scientology. In my view, it would be ridiculous to regard the Applicants as
political refugees seeking asylum in this country, and I reject the submission
that these were offences of a political character.

Involved parties

Mary Sue Hubbard, Cindy Raymond, Gerald Bennett Wolfe,
Henning Heldt, Duke Snider, Gregory Willardson, Richard Weigand, Mitchell
Herman, Sharon Thomas, Jane Kember, and Mo Budlong, all high-ranking
Scientologists, were convicted and sent to prison for five years. L. Ron
Hubbard was named by federal prosecutors as an "unindicted
co-conspirator" and went into hiding for the rest of his life.

Effect of the scandal

See also: Scientology in Canada

The Church has been notably reluctant to discuss the
operation's details; typical statements by members and operatives are often
vague comments saying that the Guardian's Office (GO) had been
"infiltrated" and "set up" to fail in its mission to
protect the Church, that those involved were "purged" from the
Church, without detailing what actually happened (although it has been
suggested many of those involved and "purged" remained in important
positions of power within the church). Church spokespersons on the Internet and
elsewhere have been known to claim that the operatives "had done nothing
more serious than steal photocopier paper."

In 2009, Church of Scientology spokesman Tommy
Davis said that the jailed members of Guardians Org were declared
"suppressive people" (aka "SPs") by the Church of
Scientology and had to undergo rehabilitation in order to resume their upper
level training in the church.

Operation Snow White extended to Canada and
resulted in legal proceedings against the Church.